Air Algérie lost contact with Flight 5017 after takeoff from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as the jetliner headed to Algiers with 116 people on board, Algeria's state news agency and the plane's operator said Thursday.

French Secretary of Transport Frédéric Cuvillier told reporters the plane disappeared over Northern Mali, where Islamist militants are fighting the Malian government and French forces. Numerous French nationals were probably aboard the missing plane, Mr. Cuvillier said.

Contact with the Boeing Co. MD-83, carrying 110 passengers and six crew members, was lost at about 1:55 a.m. local time, 50 minutes after the jet had taken off, the Algerian government's official news agency said in a statement. "Air Algérie launched [an] emergency plan," the agency added. It gave no other details.

An official at the directorate of Ouagadougou Airport said there had been an incident, "but for the moment we don't know anything more." He refused to give his name because he wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.

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